My Ethical Culture: Theresa Forsman

How does Ethical Culture show up in my day-to-day life? Two ways.

First, it is a great relief, day in and day out, to belong to a community that, in the big picture, shares my values, a great relief to be part of a community that “gets it” in a way that I do. I wasn’t looking for a religion, I wasn’t looking for an organization, when I walked in the door here for the first time. I had seen a little calendar item in the newspaper describing what seemed like a fascinating talk. That talk happened to be at a place called the Ethical Culture Society. So I got myself over here. The talk was, indeed, fascinating. And in the question/answer session after the talk, in comments people made, I realized that here was a group of people who saw the world more or less as I did. I hadn’t known that my particular values had a name: Ethical Culture. Finding that out was a great comfort back then, and now—15 years later—it’s a comfort still.

The second way that Ethical Culture shows up in my day-to-day life is that people here help me walk the walk. Examples set by people in this Ethical Culture Society make it easier for me to put into practice the theory that every human being is worthy of dignity and respect and that by providing this dignity and respect I am thereby elevating my own.

I am very clear on the worth and dignity of each person as a theory, as a belief, but as a practice? Well, that’s much less easy…I am much less clear about putting the theory into practice.

In the daily slog it’s often easier NOT to appreciate the value of each person and to treat him or her accordingly. What helps me do the right thing, more often than I would otherwise, are the examples set by many individuals here. In ways big and small, people here with plenty of responsibilities, plenty of demands on their time—in short, plenty of rational reasons for NOT stepping up and doing the right thing—step up and do the right thing.

I won’t name names, because I would never be able to cover all the good examples that I have learned from and because I don’t want to risk embarrassing anyone. I’ve witnessed many comments and deeds by people in our Society that have shown me how to be when I’m out there in nitty-gritty life and wondering whether I can summon the wherewithal to do the right thing, the Ethical Culture thing. I’ll take this opportunity to say: Thank you for that. My actions don’t always match my Ethical Culture philosophy, but they match more often because of what I’ve heard and seen in you.

Theresa Forsman
September 27, 2009